"...This note examines some of the key legal and policy implications of the Myanmar–Japan Bilateral Investment Treaty
(BIT).
This treaty was signed on December 15, 2013 but, at the time of writing, does not appear to have entered
into force. Although Myanmar is already a party to a handful of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties,
the
Myanmar–Japan BIT is particularly significant for two reasons. The first is that it is the first investment treaty to be
negotiated and signed by the transitional government that took power in 2011. As such, it provides insights into
how the current Government might approach other investment treaty negotiations over the coming years. The
second reason is that the Myanmar–Japan BIT differs significantly from recent ASEAN investment treaty practice
(to which Myanmar is a party). For one, the investment protection provisions of the Myanmar–Japan BIT use older-
style language, thereby leaving leeway for investment tribunals to limit Myanmar’s policy space in a manner that
would not be possible under the ASEAN investment treaties. Myanmar also appears to provide more extensive
pre-establishment rights to Japan than it provides to ASEAN member states under the ASEAN Comprehensive
Investment Agreement (ASEAN CIA), and it could be argued that the rights granted to Japanese investors must now
also be extended to investors of the other nine ASEAN states..."

Japanese trading company Mitsubishi Corporation has announced that it will provide US $70 million to build a floating storage offloading FSO facility for the Yetagun offshore oil and natural gas project in Burma by the end of July. [Nippon Oil, holder of 20% in Yetagun, merged with Mitsubishi Oil in April 1999 to form Japan's biggest oil company, the Nippon-Mitsubishi Oil Corporation(NMOC) known also as Nisseki Mitsubishi Oil Corp.]

In recent years Japan has attempted to assert itself as a major player on the Asian political stage, only to have its efforts rebuffed by its neighbors and its major strategic partner, the United States. But, writes Neil Lawrence, Asian countries struggling out of a major economic crisis may finally be ready to give Japan the leading role it has long coveted. But doubts remain about Japan's political values.

Burma-Japan relations go back to before World War II, and the opinions of Japan's "old Burma hands" are often better informed about internal conditions than those of Western observers, even if one doesn't entirely agree with them. But a new Japanese perspective on Burma has emerged, which could be described as "Aung San Suu Kyi-bashing" or "hitching one's wagon to the star of Asian values."

The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), on 21 October, established a panel to examine complaints by the European Communities and Japan that a Massachusetts law had violated provisions of the plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement..."